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| AsiaViews, Edition: 48/VI/March2010 |
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| Britain postpones Hitachi train contract |
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Britain has postponed signing a contract with Hitachi Ltd. for a train project worth more than 1 trillion yen ($11.21 billion) until after the general election expected in May.
The signing had been scheduled for mid-March, but Britain's Department for Transport cited a deterioration in the environment for borrowing funds and a slowdown in growth of passenger numbers.
In February 2009, Hitachi acquired preferential negotiating rights for the Intercity Express Program contract to supply about 1,400 train cars for main trunk lines in Britain between 2013 and 2018, plus up to 30 years of maintenance.
With social infrastructure businesses being a main pillar of its operations, Hitachi regards the project in Britain as a touchstone of overseas expansion of its train business.
"The project will be carried out as planned," a Hitachi official said.
However, the next British administration could scale down the project.
In December, Hitachi became the first Japanese manufacturer to supply train cars for service in Britain, the birthplace of railways, when the Channel Tunnel Rail Link started operations.
The high-speed service links London with Ashford, 85 kilometers southeast, at a maximum speed of 225 kph, reducing the travel time to 37 minutes from 83 minutes.
Hitachi's 70-billion-yen contract included delivery of 174 train cars and seven years of maintenance service.
Hitachi has selected possible sites for plants in Britain that will also be used as sales bases for its train cars abroad.
"We want to make train cars for Russia, Spain and Africa, too," Takashi Kawamura, Hitachi's chairman, said in an interview with The Asahi Shimbun in December.
Kawamura said Hitachi would post a consolidated net profit for the business year ending in March 2011, buoyed by social infrastructure businesses.
Hitachi reported a net consolidated loss of 787.3 billion yen for fiscal 2008, the largest loss ever among Japanese manufacturers. |
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| The Asahi Shimbun, 04 March 2010 |
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